On November 2, 2009, Attorney General Martha Coakley walked a day in the shoes of 1199SEIU home care worker Monica. Coakley worked with Monica to care for Maureen, a consumer with MS. These are some photos from parts of their morning together:

Martha Coakley received a unified endorsement for the U.S. Senate from five SEIU Local unions and 60,000 workers. At the press conference celebrating her endorsement, Coakley boldly declared that she will fight for healthcare workers. "I have a reputation for not backing down," she said of her record for standing up to big business interests and law violators.

This week, Coakley also received an endorsement from the Massachusetts Nurses Association. Learn more about SEIU's Walk A Day In My Shoes program by visiting www.walkadayinmyshoes2008.com.

More photos of the WAD after the break.

UPDATE, 4:00 p.m.: Former Sen. Norm Coleman announces his concession. Al Franken will be the next senator from Minnesota!

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that Al Franken won the state's U.S. Senate election last November against incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). "During the election, Senator-elect Franken made clear he will work hard to rebuild our economy through real healthcare reform and the Employee Free Choice Act, as well as tackling the long-term challenges we face on the environment, keeping college education affordable and fixing our broken immigration system," said SEIU's Anna Burger.

Today's decision begins the last chapter in a story that began almost two years ago, when then-candidate Al Franken participated in SEIU's Walk a Day In My Shoes program, becoming the first Senate candidate to do so. Watch the video of Franken's WAD with SEIU member and nursing home worker Ulysses Bridges in Minnesota.

Timing matters and it's well past the time for Minnesota to recognize Al Franken as the duly elected Senator from Minnesota--and send him to Washington. "Minnesotans took the time to conduct an extensive and thorough recount process, but now that all reasonable legal options have been exhausted, Minnesota deserves its full representation in Congress," said Burger. "We call on Governor Pawlenty to pursue the state's best interests and end this contest instead of favoring those who would allow the recount to continue for purely partisan reasons."

Two years ago, President Barack Obama walked a day in the shoes of SEIU home care worker Pauline Beck.

Today, Pauline and home care workers across California face pay cuts of up to 33% -- from $12.10 an hour down to $8.

Governor Schwarzenegger's belief that solving the state's fiscal problems on the backs of those who take care of the most fragile among us is an absolute disgrace.

Please send a message to the Governor telling him you strongly disagree with his misguided priorities: http://action.seiu.org/page/s/homecare

We're not going to let this happen without a fight.

Starting today, we're running TV ads in California featuring President Obama's day in the shoes of SEIU home care worker Pauline Beck. We also have a new print ad running in today's LA Times, featuring a letter from Pauline to President Obama asking for his help:

[...] I understand that these are challenging times, but these cuts hurt California. They put vulnerable residents at risk of losing their independence and force hard working people like me into poverty.

I know you are a good man and I am proud of the job you are doing. I hope you and the Governor can work together to help Mr. John, me and the 750,000 of Californians just like us. It would make such a difference in our lives.

We need to rally the state to stop these cuts: http://action.seiu.org/page/s/homecare

Make no mistake about it, SEIU will aggressively organize against this unjust and poorly thought-out policy decision.

"For me and for so many of my co-workers, the main issue is our healthcare," said Annie Davis, a 54-year-old New York security officer and SEIU Local 32BJ member during her day-long visit with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "We don't have sick days. We don't get paid for holidays. It's not even so much our wages, it's the benefits...We are doing some of the most important jobs in the city. "

Davis, who works in the lobby of the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in downtown NYC, makes $11.75 an hour with no days off and no medical coverage. She is one of 1,100 guards at 20 agencies throughout the city who work for private contractor Allied Barton and are considering going on strike by the end of May if things don't improve.

According to Mayor Bloomberg, his day spent with security officer Annie Brown "renewed his appreciation" for what workers go through every day to makes end meet in New York and take care of their families. On his campaign blog, Mayor Bloomberg reflects back on his day spent with Brown as part of Local 32BJ's "Walk a Day in My Shoes" campaign, acknowledging that in spite of the initiatives his administration has invested in to improve the training and compensation of NY's security officers, there's "much more to be done" to ensure the "security guards [that play] a pivotal role in keeping all eight million of us safe" are "well-paid, well-trained, and well-treated." Read the Mayor's blog here.

"Walking a day with a working New Yorker shouldn't just be a prerequisite for our union's endorsement, but a requirement for the job," said 32BJ President Mike Fishman of the local union's "Walk a Day in My Shoes" campaign to get every elected official to experience firsthand what life is like for working people. Mayor Bloomberg is the second NYC mayoral candidate to have taken part in the campaign, after City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. walked a day in the shoes of 32BJ member Lateef Rivers last week, spending part of Rivers' shift with him at the Brooklyn Municipal Building.

Read more about about Mayor Bloomberg's and Mr. Thompson's walk-a-days with SEIU 32BJ members in the NY Daily News and the NY Times. Video of Mayor Bloomberg's day with Annie Brown at NY1 here.

We've got his attention.

Thanks to you - and everyone who watched and shared it with friends - Bill O'Reilly actually responded to our video this week on his show.

Watch O'Reilly address our video on air: action.seiu.org/getrealoreilly

O'Reilly refused the challenge to come walk a day in our shoes, because he's already "been to those places." While he may have visited Billings, Montana, we seriously doubt he's spent a day there caring for a sick patient, or keeping an office building secure in Chicago.

That's why we're not letting up. He's seen the video, but he hasn't yet received the letters that thousands of you wrote to him, asking him to walk a day in the shoes of a working American.

We're aiming to get 10,000 letters for Bill O'Reilly before we deliver them next week. Can you help? Write a letter: action.seiu.org/getrealoreilly

SEIU member Rebia Maxon-Clay said it best; O'Reilly needs to get off his high horse and find out how average Americans really live.

Election 2008 will forever be remembered as an historic, transformational point in US history. The American people voted overwhelmingly for change as men and women of all different backgrounds across this nation sent a clear message: it is time to create a new American Dream.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) played a critical role in the success of the newly elected president Barack Obama and his running mate Joe Biden, as well as candidates at all levels of government who are committed to improving the lives of working families. From deploying member political organizers to battleground states to register and educate people to producing ads that highlighted the difference between candidates on issues of concern to lower income and middle class voters, SEIU was a driving force in victories for working families all over the country.

SEIU Members Helped Win Big Victories for Working Families across the Country

• SEIU members helped win 83% of the key states, races and ballot measures that SEIU committed their time, money and political resources to make a difference for working families.
• Barack Obama and Joe Biden won 17 of the 19 states that SEIU targeted, with one state still undecided but leaning toward Obama/Biden.
• SEIU members helped pro-working family Senate candidates win in 6 of 8 targeted races (75%).
• SEIU members helped pro-working family House candidates win in 21 of 27 targeted races (78%).
• Six of eight (75%) SEIU-backed Senate candidates in key battleground states who support Employee Free Choice prevailed, despite being targeted by a more than $20 million campaign by corporate interests that never caught on with voters. One of the eight races remains undecided.
• SEIU members helped pro-working family gubernatorial candidates win in three of four targeted races (75%), including those of Jay Nixon (MO), Beverly Perdue (NC) and Governor Christine Gregoire (WA).
• SEIU members helped working families win new majorities in state houses across the country, including the Delaware House, the Ohio House, the Wisconsin Assembly, the New York Senate and the Nevada Senate. SEIU members also helped elect a supermajority in the Oregon House.
• SEIU members played indispensable roles in local races all over the country helping elect candidates who stand up for working families, such as Mark Ridley-Thomas in the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors race.
• SEIU members helped pass or helped to defeat eight of the main ballot measures that were targeted.
• SEIU members led and worked in coalitions that helped defeat anti-union ballot initiatives in Colorado and Oregon.
• SEIU members led efforts that passed Proposition B in Missouri by 75 percent. Proposition B will make it easier for elderly and disabled people who need care to remain in their homes. In Washington State, Initiative 1029 will improve training standards for long-term care workers and passed with a similar margin.
• In Massachusetts, SEIU members helped block a measure that would have denied the state the funds necessary to provide necessary services investments in infrastructure by eliminating the income tax.
• SEIU Member-Candidate program graduate Tami Green won reelection to the Washington State House of Representatives. Linda Rouse Sutton, also a graduate, won one of two At-Large County Commissioner seats in North Carolina's Lenoir County.

The 2008 Election must be read as a victory for working people and by working people. For almost two years, the voices of men and women who get up and go to work every day raised the stakes for this election. For SEIU members, this election has always been about the economy. It has always been about health care. It has always been about rebuilding the middle class. This election has always been about putting the American Dream back within the reach of middle class and low-income people who work hard and want to provide our kids and our grandkids with a better future.

SEIU's 2008 Political Program at a Glance

In the 2008 Election, more than 3,000 SEIU members, staff and local leaders voluntarily took time off the job to go into the field to work for change. Over the course of the campaign, an additional 100,000 nurses, janitors, child care providers and other workers volunteered after work and on weekends to ensure that Barack Obama, Joe Biden and pro-working family candidates and issues won on November 4th. SEIU Locals and State Councils in California, New York, Illinois and other non-targeted states contributed significant resources and deployed members to the battleground states, which made all the difference in giving Barack Obama the ground advantage in the campaign.

SEIU members and staff engaged union voters and the general public one-on-one throughout the election. Together they:

• knocked on 3,504,947 doors;
• made 16,539,038 phone calls;
• sent 5,125,378 pieces of mail;
• registered more than 227,000 new voters in battleground states and California;
• helped 10,992 voters vote early or by absentee;
• held 658 earned media events.

SEIU members also stepped up their political engagement and increased their commitment to SEIU's Committee on Political Education (COPE).

• SEIU members who are COPE contributors increased their average monthly contribution by 25 percent in this past year, to $4.22 per month.
• An additional 4,014 SEIU members enrolled as new COPE contributors this year with an average contribution level of $5.03 per month.
• SEIU members challenged all candidates to "Walk a Day in My Shoes" and learn what it is like to work and raise a family in today's economy. Twenty-one candidates took up the challenge and SEIU Local unions across the country adopted the program for their local candidates.
• More than 3,000 SEIU members, Local and International staff members were deployed to 20 states to help win for working families.
• More than 100,000 SEIU nurses, janitors, child care providers and other members volunteered after work and on weekends to win for working families.

November 4 marked a turning point for working families all across this country. While the past eight years were disaster for hardworking men and women who watched the American Dream slip out of their reach, the American spirit of progress never wavered. This election marks a new beginning, and this is our moment.

SEIU members are ready. We have a chance to put America on a new path, and SEIU members will help with the transition, establish a clear agenda to rebuild the middle class, fix our national health care system, give workers the freedom to join a union without intimidation and hold every politician accountable for the promises they have made to the hardworking families of this nation who have changed history.